Justice committee  Fair enough. I'd have to look to my practice experience and knowledge of community. One of the big driving factors is accepting clients and individuals as they are and in the place they are in. When we have clients who want assistance, we provide assistance and referrals to shelt

Justice committee  Mr. Chairman, if I may answer the member's question, it's not a constitutional override per se. The Gladue principle is derived from another provision in the Criminal Code. The Supreme Court of Canada enunciated it first in Gladue, and then reiterated more recently in Ipeelee in

Justice committee  The overrepresentation is actually well known and documented in terms of.... This is where Ipeelee, the decision by the Supreme Court, comes in, recognizing those principles in sentencing, and even beyond sentencing, when they have to be considered. So one of the questions the co

Justice committee  There are two issues there, actually. The one is, yes, you characterized that correctly. But also, because there are not good definitions around the exploitive nature or relationship, where there are relationships that are not exploitive, there's potential to also prosecute or cr

Justice committee  The only example I can give that I think everyone will know is Pickton, in Vancouver. When police were not prosecuting communications as long as prostitutes weren't in certain parts of town.... When you know where to find the sex, in industrial sections or down dark alleys or dif

Justice committee  Mr. Chair, if I can answer the member's questions, they are very good questions. Thank you for asking them. Yes, we do represent only aboriginal clients. Some of them are sex workers. Do we keep statistics on that? No, because we meet our clients where they are at. We allow our

Justice committee  That would be our opposition to the bill, that the criminalization—

Justice committee  Yes, because of the adverse impact it will have on sex workers. The adverse impact it will have on sex workers is the driving of the most vulnerable, the street-level sex workers or survival sex workers, into darker corners or into places where they become unsafe. Contrary to w

Justice committee  Yes, in response to that, article 279.01, which you were talking about, is actually a provision that allows for the prosecution of human trafficking. Interestingly, when we've done research on it to understand what the differences are...because what we're hearing from a lot of wi

Justice committee  With respect, I would disagree. Minister MacKay also said that, and relied on, the $20 million that has been so notoriously discussed through these meetings about not being enough. His response was that, in addition, there is the legislative monetary response and that they would

Justice committee  Yes, the Canadian that assisted with the development of the Swedish legislation.

Justice committee  I am going to reference only the UNDRIP, the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. Interestingly, and I don't have time to get into it, there is a whole level of autonomy and self-governance, and a lot of models. It's one thing to say to respect it, but

Justice committee  Mr. Chair, if I could address the member's question, yes, I agree with your characterization. I don't believe it meets the constitutional muster, as it's currently drafted. In fact, it basically does the same thing. People will rely on the preamble, or they'll say things. But wh

Justice committee  Mr. Chair, if I could address the member's question, a direct answer would be that parts of it are fundamentally flawed. The reason they're fundamentally flawed is in relation to the mandatory minimums that exist and actual charges that exist, because things like exploitive relat

Justice committee  Mr. Chair, to the member who has asked the question, it's not a simple answer, so I will try to keep it as concise as possible. There are a couple of things. You had stated that we already have trafficking laws. We do actually already have trafficking laws, and if you go to Stat